1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a cleaning device and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus having the cleaning device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An operation of laser printers includes a charging process of charging the entire surface of a photosensitive body, an exposure process of forming an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive body by radiating laser beams onto the photosensitive body, a developing process of forming a visible image by attaching a developing agent to the electrostatic latent image, a transfer process of transferring the visible image onto paper, and a fusing process of fusing the visible image transferred onto the paper on the paper. In the transfer process, the whole developing agent is not transferred onto the paper, and the developing agent remains in the photosensitive body. The residual developing agent lowers printing quality of a next page, and thus needs to be removed. A cleaning device for cleaning the surface of the photosensitive body is disposed as a device for removing the residual developing agent. Also, when a two-component developing agent including carriers and toner is used as the developing agent, the toner is attached onto the photosensitive body by performing the developing process. However, a small number of carriers may be attached onto the photosensitive body. In this case, the cleaning device cleans the stuck matter. Thus, the stuck matter to be cleaned by the cleaning device is toner, and may include carriers.
A method of scratching and removing the residual developing agent on the surface of the photosensitive body using a cleaning blade configured of an elastic member, as the cleaning device, is used. The removed residual developing agent is recovered by a recovering mechanism, such as an auger screw disposed in the cleaning device. The developing agent including very small particles may float and leak into a fine gap. Because leakage of the developing agent may cause contamination or failure in an image forming apparatus, this needs to be prevented. In order to prevent the leakage of the residual developing agent, a sealing structure is employed in a needed position of the cleaning device, and sealing members are installed in both ends of the cleaning blade.
In a structure for preventing leakage of the developing agent through a space between both ends of the cleaning blade and a housing portion, a sealing member is installed between an end of the cleaning blade and the housing portion to fill a gap between both ends of the cleaning blade and the housing portion. In a structure in which lateral ends of the sealing member and lateral ends of the cleaning blade come into contact with each other, it is not easy to maintain high adhesion performance therebetween. Also, when an oscillating cleaning blade that oscillates in a direction of a diameter or an axial direction of the photosensitive body is employed, the elasticity of the sealing member is insufficient so that the sealing member may not follow the oscillation of the cleaning blade, or an elastic force of the sealing member is lowered due to deterioration according to time, and thus the sealing member may not follow the oscillation of the cleaning blade.